npm throws a segmentation fault with Ubuntu 16.04 and Node 6.0.0

Question

I've installed the newest version of node (6.0.0) on Ubuntu 16.04, but when I tried to install Yeoman (or any other npm module for that matter) globally, it throws out a Segmentation fault

~$ node -v
6.0.0
~$ npm -v
3.8.6
~$ sudo npm install -g yo
normalizeTree → headers   ▌ ╢░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░╟
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
~$ sudo npm install -g npm
normalizeTree → 200       ▌ ╢░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░╟
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

I've also tried reinstalling npm by cloning the git repository, but it failed there as well

~/Documents$ git clone https://github.com/npm/npm.git
Cloning into 'npm'...
remote: Counting objects: 55706, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (158/158), done.
remote: Total 55706 (delta 64), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 55547
Receiving objects: 100% (55706/55706), 29.55 MiB | 1.25 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (30297/30297), done.
Checking connectivity... done.
~/Documents$ ls
npm
~/Documents$ cd npm
~/Documents/npm$ ls
AUTHORS       changelogs  CONTRIBUTING.md  lib       Makefile      README.md
bin           cli.js      doc              LICENSE   node_modules  scripts
CHANGELOG.md  configure   html             make.bat  package.json  test
~/Documents/npm$ ./configure node_debug=1
~/Documents/npm$ make
scripts/doc-build.sh doc/cli/npm-bugs.md man/man1/npm-bugs.1
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/cameron/Documents/npm'
node cli.js install marked-man --no-global
normalizeTree → install   ▌ ╢░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░╟
Makefile:151: recipe for target 'node_modules/.bin/marked-man' failed
make[1]: *** [node_modules/.bin/marked-man] Segmentation fault (core dumped)
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/cameron/Documents/npm'
Makefile:96: recipe for target 'man/man1/npm-bugs.1' failed
make: *** [man/man1/npm-bugs.1] Error 2
~/Documents/npm$

I've scoured Stack Overflow to find an answer, but nothing helped me. I have no idea what to try now. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

For anyone else facing this issue after upgrading to ubuntu 19.04, try running:

sudo apt --auto-remove purge npm
sudo apt --auto-remove purge nodejs

It seems there must be more than one version of nodejs or npm installed on upgrade. After running the above commands, you can check nodejs and npm versions.

This fix has been posted in the npm community:

https://npm.community/t/segmentation-fault-core-dumped-error-for-every-npm-command/7086